


Dusty Office

by SecondSilk



Category: Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Harry Potter - Rowling
Genre: Crossover, Gen, Post - Order of the Phoenix, Pre-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-10-15
Updated: 2010-10-15
Packaged: 2017-10-12 17:10:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 633
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/127133
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SecondSilk/pseuds/SecondSilk
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Giles is packing to leave for America, but there are things he has to leave behind.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Dusty Office

However much time one spent in this room, and however often it was cleaned, Remus thought, it would always be dusty. The locked cabinet stood open, its shelves empty; books, papers and few personal ornaments were stacked neatly waiting to be packed into the last box. There was dust everywhere. Remus sneezed.

"Please don't do that," Rupert said in a bored voice.

He picked up a stack of books, careful not to let Remus see the titles of the codices on the bottom, and dropped them into the box on his desk.

"You're the one who doesn't clean your office," Remus said.

"It's my office," Rupert replied.

"It should stay that way."

Rupert pointed a warning finger at the younger man.

"I don't see why you have to leave," Remus repeated.

"I have a job in America."

"You have a job here. We need your expertise."

Rupert chuckled quietly to himself. His job was fine. The ceramics collection at the Victoria and Albert museum was world class, and he had prevented the release of several nasty spirits in his time there. But his expertise was demons and the teenaged girls destined to fight them.

"I have a job in America."

Remus pulled a piece of paper out of the pile and shook it in Rupert's face. 'Sunnydale High School,' was printed boldly across the top.

"How is a high school in need of your skills and knowledge?"

"More ways than you can image," Rupert said.

Remus wasn't sure about that. He had charmed the locked cabinet open one evening and searched through the extra dusty and never-read books in the back of it. There were several texts in there that had made Remus's dizzy just thinking about them. But there were also others, books of prophesy and fate, books that talked about the final battle, the rising again of a dark lord, death. Remus's Latin wasn't strong, and he wanted another look at the books.

"I don't want you to leave," Remus said, desperately thinking of anything to give him another opportunity with the books.

"That's sweet, but you're really not my type," Rupert said.

They were much too alike, he thought, old before their time. Although, Remus did have a much more legitimate reason for the grey in his hair. There was more going on with the man, Rupert knew, but the death a Slayer and two watchers so close together was more to worry about than the peculiarities of his assistant's social life.

Remus was flattered for a moment, even at the joke, but Rupert dropped the stack of papers carelessly onto the books he wanted.

"There's a boy's life in the balance."

"That is not my area of expertise," Rupert said.

He put his Orb of Thessula back in its box and placed in it carefully into the box and added the last of the books. He stacked the papers neatly and slid them in. He tucked the flaps closed and opened the top drawer of his desk to remove the last items from it. One was a cross, which he slipped into the pocket of his waistcoat; the other was a slim, old book, which he held out to Remus.

"You can use this better than I could," he said.

Remus accepted it gingerly, but neither opened nor looked at it. Rupert picked his box up and walked to the door. Remus opened it for him, and Rupert nodded in farewell as he passed. He didn't expect Remus to follow him out and was both glad and disappointed when the door closed behind him and he was alone in the corridor. Alone to walk away.

Remus was left alone in an otherwise empty and dusty office, holding a book called _To Stand Against Him: cursed to fight the darkness_.


End file.
